Black
Hawk Dawn, Ridley Scott’s blistering examination of a
real U.S. military mission that occurred in Somalia in 1993,
is a haunting indictment of American hubris. By focusing on
combat instead of sentiment, Scott presents an impressionistic
interpretation of war. Aided by a top-notch ensemble cast
and plenty of gut-churning violence, the director comes closer
than he ever has to meshing documentary-like realism with
the sophisticated photography for which he is known, and he
actually benefits from the pared-back human interaction of
the screenplay. What’s more, Scott hasn’t made anything this
socially relevant since Thelma & Louise more than a decade ago.

The Shipping News

While
I didn't really like E. Annie Proulx's novel The Shipping News, I did appreciate its
treatment of life as a sort of savage ballet performed by
people with two left feet. Having seen Lasse Hallström's film
version, I like the book a whole lot better, if only because
Hallström made its air of discomfort and melancholy something
to wallow in, like a comfy four-poster bed. In short, it’s
the kind of movie at which trendy filmgoers get a warm-fuzzy
fix. Then again, how engaging can a movie be whose protagonist
(Kevin Spacey) spends nearly every moment submerged in a kind
of psychic drowning pool? What’s best about this movie are
the glorious images of stark landscapes of Newfoundland.

Snow Dogs

One
could be forgiven for expecting a movie set in Alaska and
called Snow Dogs
to be about, well, snow dogs. While there are a number of
handsome four-legged animals in this unfortunate picture,
they place a distant second in screen time to the two-legged,
talking, upright variety of creature. The story, concerning
a Miami dentist (Cuba Gooding Jr.) who travels to Alaska to
learn about his parents after discovering he was adopted,
is incoherent and juvenile. The enervating spectacle of watching
adults act like children would have gone unnoticed if the
rest of film were funny. It’s not. Making a film with animals
is not exactly rocket science, and one would think that the
Disney people could handle it. Apparently, they can’t.

Brotherhood of the Wolf

Certainly
the strangest foreign flick to enjoy a wide American release
in some time, Brotherhood
of the Wolf is an arresting blend of costume drama, horror,
action and romance. It also boasts one of the most preposterous
stories ever filmed, which makes it a love-hate proposition:
Some may adore its reckless mix of disparate elements and
its robust energy, while others will detest the senselessness
of the whole endeavor. With its fast-moving narrative about
18th-century martial artists chasing a murderous, mysterious
beast, Brotherhood of
the Wolf offers something akin to the nonstop stimulation
of contemporary American action movies, rather than an inventive
take on cinematic combat.

The Mothman Prophecies

Director
Mark Pellington, who helmed the great paranoid thriller Arlington
Road, confidently returns to the genre with this eerie piece
that concerns supernatural mothlike beings that supposedly
appear in the days before a disaster. Richard Gere is sympathetic
as a reporter who finds himself drawn into a paranoid, nocturnal
world. Impressionable viewers beware: Pellington has a knack
for insinuating his creepy moods and eating holes in one's
sense of security.